I want my m-TV

The MLB season is on and as usual, the Mets are struggling to appear less ridiculous than the previous year... but at least, all teams look small on mobi-MLB's little screens.
Yet, power can make for size and Idetic just smacked a dinger over the fence : after Sprint PCS, Cingular / AT&T Wireless and Midwest Wireless, Canada's Rogers Wireless picked their MobiTV solution for Rogers Mobile Television.
Idetic is definitely an ambitious fast mover. We're in April and the season is just starting. More operators will come, and so will new channels. Before clinching the MLB deal last march, MobiTV signed an interesting roster (MSNBC, ABC News Now, NBC Mobile, CNBC, FOX Sports, The Discovery Channel, TLC, Comedy Time, California Music Channel...). Europe is clearly on the 2005 roadmap : new offices in London, good PR at 3GSM, a former Vodafone Global Product Council member in charge of international expansion (Ray DeRenzo).
It took Idetic less than one year to go from buzz to boom. One can wonder how an "independant" can make it where the big guys in broadcasting struggle. First it helps not being a big guy in broadcasting when you deal with big guys in wireless. Second it helps to have a good cast : start with good managers, do the right pick at the august 2004 draft (Menlo Ventures and RedPoint Ventures), hire a few big league advisors to get a comprehensive picture of the game (backgrounds : Nokia, Qualcomm, IBM plus Phone.com / Openwave's Chuck Parrish), and wrap it up with efficient PR (mainstream media brought articles just weeks after the draft). And third it helps to have a good service and a knack for dealmaking.
I expected USA Inc to win back part of their 1G leadership in 3G through broadcasting, but I find it rather refreshing to see whole new players lead the way that smartly. Many will crash but a few Yahoo!es will go all the way.
To be continued.